E3 2006: MotoGP PSP

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Hands-On: Namco does it again with a brilliant-looking translation of its bike racer.

By Nix

We don't know how Namco is doing this. First, Ridge Racer for PSP was at launch (and arguably still is) the most visually stunning and technically demonstrative game on PSP. Following it this year at E3 were mind-blowing new entries in the Tekken and Ace Combat franchise, both displaying the kind of no-compromise 3D quality that we were promised when SCE announced the system. And just as we were about to leave the E3 show floor, we caught yet another Namco PSP stunner, a conversion of the MotoGP racing series that was only playable in one kiosk tucked away on a far corner of the show hall. Although the game has not yet been officially announced for a US release (Europe has officially announced the game, and Japan likely has the news somewhere that we haven't been able to read up on yet), the title was certainly a surprise worth shouting about.

Essentially, if you haven seen the kind of PS2-quality technology Namco has previously put together on PSP, then you should know what to expect with this PSP conversion. It's a stunner, with the same kind of detailed rider shading, smoothed edges, super-res texture techniques, and road shine effects seen on the home version, all running at a framerate that seemed far beyond what we usually get with PSP in even the system's best games. The carefully-designed sense of speed was there, and those incredible crash animations (where the rider skids around on leather while his bike flips end over end) were in the game in exactly the way they were on PS2. We did notice a tiny bit of slowdown in the PSP version (which only had one-on-one play in our session -- the full game has a whole field of over 20 riders) but given that this must have been an early build in the short demo we tried out, we're hoping that Namco will have all of the typical visual and technical that MotoGP fans expect. The PSP version also took some real getting used to because of the analog nub's particular control abilities, but because the game is so sim-oriented, this should be expected to come with the territory.

As for features, MotoGP on PSP features real motorbike racing superstars and official circuits for realistic play. The game has full Season Mode features as well as a less stressful One on One Mode. Wirelessly, the game supports up to eight players together, ad-hoc but unfortunately without online play and likely also without Game Sharing.

While we await confirmation from Namco US on whether MotoGP will come out here, look for import coverage of the European (put out by SCE Europe) and Japanese version (likely by Namco itself) later this year.